“It is a abnormal sensation, this double-consciousness, this experience of at all times taking a look at one’s self during the eyes of others,…

“It is a atypical sensation, this double-consciousness, this experience of all the time one’s self during the eyes of others, of measuring
one’s soul by way of the tape of a global that appears on in amused contempt and
pity. One ever feels his two-ness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two
thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring beliefs in one darkish
body, whose dogged energy alone maintains it from being torn asunder.The historical past of the American Negro is the historical past of this strife —
this longing to obtain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self
into a much better and more true self. In this merging he desires neither of the
older selves to be misplaced.”